Dreams & Gardens

I have a gardening project every year.

Two years ago, Robert and I made a raised bed garden in our backyard.

Last year, I added another raised bed garden.

We took apart a "shelf" system in our garage, because it wasn't practical and poorly designed and used that wood for both our gardens.  So all the wood is re-used!

One of the plants I planted was an eggplant and got ONE eggplant out of it.  I made eggplant parmesan!  I also planted pees, but I didn't do much with them except munch on them every time I walked by the garden.  Robert was very excited about planting corn, but the only thing we did with that was dried it up and used it for Halloween decorations.  The cucumbers and tomato plants, however, were a disaster last year!

We also planted sunflowers but those were for the birds :)

There were a lot of plants that we never really "used", which is unfortunate.. but this year will be different.  If I have to learn to pickle the tomatos to keep them from spoiling, I will do just that.  Maybe I can make home-made pasta sauce!  Or maybe I'll just give them out to the neighbors. 

In the same year, 2009, I extended the garden in my front yard.

Before:

and After:

It was a productive year when it came to gardening.  Though, unfortunately, it was a very cold spring last year and the plants didn't get a healthy start.  The garden wasn't as lush and full as I wanted it to be, but it takes a couple of years for new plants to establish themselves.  Gardening is teaching me to be patient.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention.  Those bricks you see above?  I saw an ad on craigslist, a few months before this whole endeavor, for FREE bricks.  Another young couple just wanted to get rid of them!  The catch was that we had to show up with a car and haul them off ourselves.  So we did just that.  They sat in our driveway until the day came when I was finally able to utilize them.  I love useful, free stuff!  These bricks probably saved me 30-50$!! 

Robert and I also planted an oak tree that we bought at Home Depot at the end of the season when it was on clearance for $15!  We planted it in late October.

I was a little scared when this oak tree didn't drop its leaves like the rest of the trees in November, but I just found out that that oak trees hold onto their leaves through the winter and lose them when new shoots knock them off in the spring.  I guess we'll see in the spring if it survived or not.  I really hope it will be all right.

In late November I planted spring bulbs - some pink tulips, black tulips, and some allium!  I'm really anxious to see if they, too, survived... or if the moles got to them!

I have so many new projects in mind for 2010.  So many ideas.  I cannot wait to get started.